Two Dancers by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas

Exemplified above by Two Dancers (1890), Impressionist painter Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas continued to portray dancers into his late career. As his eyesight began to fail, the strong, gestural activity of working pastel on paper gave him the effects that he desired as well as a medium he could control. The harsh color contrasts evoke the artificial stage lighting on the dancers' tulle skirts and the makeup powdered on their bare flesh as they wait in the wings.

Pastel painting of two ballet dancers, Two Dancers by Degas.
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas's Two Dancers is a
pastel on cream woven paper, pieced and laid down
on board (27-3/4x21-1/8 inches), which is in the
possession of The Art Institute of Chicago.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Debra N. Mancoff, Ph.D., is an art historian and lecturer and the author of numerous books on nineteenth-century European and American paintings. She is a scholar in residence at the Newberry Library and an adjunct associate professor and adjunct lecturer at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.